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Overall a fantastic role playing game

Chrono Cross for me is one of the best and amazing role playing games to have come along in a few years and I've played this many times on my Playstation. It is both interesting and time consuming and keeps you riveted for hours on end. One game will take well over 50 hours to play and with 44 playable characters there is plenty of replay value.

In this game you play as Serge who is a young 17 year old boy who lives in the small village of Arni. As this character your first mission comes from your girlfriend Leena. She sends you off to collect Komodo dragon scales for her so she can make a necklace out of them! Once you collect these items you have to meet her at the beach and then your adventure really starts. Unknown to you, you are thrown head long into another world. It is the same as your own world except in this one you don't exist. What is your role in this world and what is your destiny? Only time will tell.....

As with most role playing games you can go everywhere and do almost everything. Plus you can talk to as many people as you can and need to as well to succeed. They will all give you clues and help you in your quest along the way.

Within the game itself there are two worlds you travel in and to and from. The first world is called Home world and this is where you are originally from. The other is called Another World an nobody knows you. In this world you died when you were the age of 7.

Throughout your travels you can use your magic alot. Each person has their own colour that varies from person to person. The colours are black, white, red, blue, green and yellow and you have a grid that grows as you gain levels. It is handy to equip each character with a variety of elements of magic. Each element has an oppposite. For example, if your character is associated with black then they will be more at risk to attack by characters with white than others.

In additon to this there are different types of elements, like Attack, healing, supplemental, summons and trap. Attack inflicts pain on an enemy while healing helps heal hit points attained in your party and remove damgage sustained. If you have supplemental element this will increase your defense, magical power, physical attack or turn your opponents elemantal property to another colour. If you use summons then you can summon different creatures to peform and attack for you. Finally, trap will trap other elements that enemies try to inflict on you.

All weapons and armour plus accessories for battle have to be forged and there is also a fee to pay when you hand over the forging material. You are able to make them more powerful weapons for all characters. In the game there are also key items you need to collect along the way. The more people you talk and the more things you explore the more chance you have of finding some of these key items.

With over 44 characters this game really doesn't get dull at all and is fantastic to play over and over again. You can't obtain them all first time either which gives you an incentive to play again. Put this together with the great gameplay and you can't go wrong...Highly recommended if you like role playing games.

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When it comes to RPGs, there's perhaps no company more famous for them then Squaresoft. From hits like Xenogears and Secret of Mana to the legendary Final Fantasy series, Square really knows their stuff when it comes to RPGs. Sure there were a few let downs to me like Saga Frontier and Final Fantasy 8, but overall I still consider Square one of the best when it comes to an RPG. One of my favorite Square titles was a SNES game by the name of Chrono Trigger. In my opinion, it was probably my second favorite RPG right behind Sega's Phantasy Star 2. I've waited for a sequel to Chrono Trigger for some time, so as you may expect I was pretty happy when Square had announced its sequel Chrono Cross a few years back. So, how does Chrono Cross stack up to the original? Lets see. In Chrono Cross, you assume the role of a young boy called Serge. On a trip to find Komodo Scales for his friend Leena, Serge has a little accident on a nearby beach. When he awakens, he finds himself in an alternate reality in which he had previously died in. Serge eventually discovers that he has a much bigger role in the world then just a simple teenage boy. Thats all im going to tell about the story since I don't want to ruin it for anyone. And one thing I did find interesting about the story is that unlike Square's Final Fantasy games, Chrono Cross has definite connections to its prequel Chrono Trigger. In fact, it takes place about 20 years after that game and even features a number of appearances by Chrono, Marle and Lucca. Although I can't say I can remember the original Chrono Trigger (hey, its been like 7 years and i've played alot of games since) all that well, Chrono Cross seems to play quite abit differently then from what I do remember about the original. Im not going to make any real comparisons though since like I said, I cant remember the original all that well. One thing that I in fact do remember was the cool time travel elements of the first game. These elements are sort of back in Chrono Cross. This time, the game has you constantly hopping back and forth in between Serge's home world and the alternate reality. In some instances, what you do in one dimension, can affect what's going on in the other. It can get a little confusing at times though. Sometimes you may find yourself dead stuck in one area and you must then travel to the other dimension to accomplish your goal. One of the coolest thing about the original Chrono Trigger was its character design by Akira Toriyama of Dragon Ball Z fame. Sadly, that great character design has flown strait out the window in Chrono Cross. Serge is as non descript and boring as they come. Other lame characters include a Mexican wrestler, a turnip, a straw man and a big queer looking pink dog. Im telling you, these are designs i'd expect out of a lesser company like Crave or even Acclaim, not Square. About the only cool characters that had any real personality and good design were the foul mouthed Kid and a French clown called Harle. Other then that most of the games 40 playable characters are totally lame. Yes, I said 40 characters. Although this is alot for an RPG, its not actually as good as it sounds since most of them are as useless and they are lame looking. The combat system itself is kind of a mixed bag. Its sort of like a mix of Final Fantasy and Dungeons and Dragons. First off, fights are not random as you can see your enemies before fighting them. Battles are also completely turned based so you can ease back some and not worry about franticly rushing through menus to set up your action. During the fight you can have up to 3 characters on your side like in Final Fantasy. Characters start with 7 action points in which they can use in each combat round, With them, you can use 3 different attacks or magic. Magic or items will take up all 7 points while standard attacks take between 1 and 3 depending on their power. Also, the more powerful the attack, the lower the hit percentage of it is. Each character also has their own elemental attribute out of 6 different colors. Each elemental color conflicts with another. For example, white and black both conflict with each other. If a character with a black attribute attacks one with a white (or vice versa), then their attack will deal more damage then if it were against a character with a blue or red attribute. There's also an indicator up top that changes color when magic (Elements) and special attacks are used. By using the same color Elements enough, its possible to change the entire field to that color element. Having the field all one color allows certain powerful elemental attacks of that color to be used. It a ll sounds pretty confusing but its nothing really that tough to learn. Now, the part of the fighting that reminds me of Dungeons and Dragons is the magic. Like I mentioned, magic is called elements. Unlike most RPGs, you don't actually learn magic as you get more powerful. Instead you can either buy it or find it. Each character has a grid in which they can use to place their elements in. The more powerful the element or item, the higher up on the grid it needs to go. If you put it any lower then the indicated number on it, it will lose power. Also, once you use that element, you cannot use it again in that fight. Don't worry though, you wont lose it permanently, its just for that fight. Ok, now for the parts of Chrono Cross I didn't like besides the lame characters. First is the whole elemental system. While the whole thing may sound pretty original and cool, I didn't feel it worked quite as well as it should have. I don't think items and magic's should be kept in the same menu. While this may not bother some, I didn't like this. The actual magic's themselves are mostly useless. With the exception of a few healing and damage cutting spells, I really didn't find many of the magic's to be as effective as they should have been. My second problem with the game deals with the games leveling up method. Why? Simple, you cannot level up. In many RPGs, constant fighting will increase your characters level and allow them to become stronger. Instead in Chrono Cross, you have a party level. Party levels in crease when beating bosses and not from regular battles. After raising your party level, you can gain a hit point or 2 from fighting a few weaker enemies, but, that only works for a few fights and it is impossible to get any stronger after that. This is lame. Picture this, if a player is having a difficult time with a certain boss and they want to level up to get a little more power to beat that boss, they can't. Sure you can get more powerful weapons but that will do very little for you. Especially if your already equipped with the most powerful weapon you can get at the point your in. I guess Square calls this innovation, but I call it crap. Heck, the back of the package reads "Unique design eliminates random battles and experience points." So im assuming that just because its unique that it means its good? Some may like this but I think its just plain stupid. If a person wants to spend hours leveling up in an RPG to make their characters stronger, then that should be up to them if they want to invest the time to do it. Another major gripe I had was with the last boss and the ending. When I finally made it to the last boss, I was expecting some huge epic battle that gave me a challenge. Instead what I got was a mediocre looking boss that was a cakewalk to beat. It used really nothing more then weak little magic spells that did a minimum of damage to your characters. I had thought that when the boss started exploding, it was going to morph into a tough looking new form or something. I guess I thought wrong because immediately after it was finishe d exploding, the end credits began to roll. What the hell! What a nice ending to reward the 42+ hours I just put into this damn game. There is a real ending, but to get it requires alot of frustration. You need to use your elements in a certain color order to light up the colored globes up top. This is not only stupid but extremely frustrating to do. You'll want to throw your controller when you have half of the colors done and the boss cast a spell and ruins the entire thing. Lame! Another lame thing was that no place during the game did I find any references on how to do this color alignment to get the real ending. So, what this means is that unless you bought a guide you will probably have no clue that there is an actual ending to the game. Graphics 9: Graphics are very impressive for a PS1 game. In fact, this is one of the best looking PS1 games out. Graphics are almost on par with Sony's Legend of Dragoon. Colors are nice and sharp, jaggy graphics and pixels are kept to a minimum. The characters and battle scenes are all made up of polygons while almost everything else is made up of rendered backdrops like in the PS1 Final Fantasy games. Actual character animation is a little jerky and some scenes tend to get a little framey but there's nothing really that bad that hurts the graphics any. Magic effects and summon spells look very pretty as well but not quite as nice or exaggerated as the ones found in the Final Fantasy games. Overall a very impressive job by Square on the graphics. Sound 6: The sound in Chrono Cross was somewhat of a letdown. Sound effects were ok and did the job but the music is pretty boring. It has the typical RPG sounding adventure theme to it and it does fit the game. The only problem was like I said, its boring. Its doubtful that you'll remember any of it 5 minutes after playing. Another problem I had with the sound was the lack of voice acting. I felt the acting in Final Fantasy X on the PS2 was amazing and really added to the game by giving the characters more of a personality. While some may disagree with me on this, its just the way I feel about it. Control 9: No real problems with the control here. Everything is pretty responsive and simple to learn. The only real problem comes with learning the whole element and battle system. This is a little more of a problem then it should be at first since there's no real tutorial in the game and the book doesn't offer much help. After a few hours of play you should start learning the whole system though. Its not really as complex as it sounds. Overall I was kind of let down with Chrono Cross. After reading several reviews and articles on it that called it one of the greatest RPGs ever, I had pretty high hopes for it. Especially since the first game on the SNES was so amazing. In the end, Chrono Cross turned out to be a slightly above average RPG at best. I can guarantee you that is Sega had put this same exact game out on the Saturn or Dreamcast a few years back that it would not have received this much praise. Crap l ike the lack of experience points or the fact that most of the 40 characters are useless would have been dogged like no tomorrow by Square freaks. Because this is by Square and on the PS1 though, those same Square freaks will praise this game to no end. Its a damn shame that this game got so much praise while Sega's masterpieces like Skies of Arcadia,Dark Wizard and Shining Force 3 got so little attention. Chrono Cross is not a horrible game and I would recommend it. Just don't get your hopes too high. Especially if you were a big fan of the original like myself.

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You control Serge, a young boy growing up in a small, friendly village. However, things aren't going to remain normal for long - upon visiting the beach with his (wanna-be) girlfriend he accidentally finds himself falling through a portal into a parallel universe. He finds himself trapped in a world which is almost identical to his own, but where certain events have had different outcomes - the main one being that in this universe he's dead! Serge's original quest to get back home quickly grows when he discovers that evil elements are at work. If their plans are allowed to come to fruition it could spell the end for both worlds.... So, a fairly standard RPG storyline (save the world), but oh... how wonderfully executed! The game plays in very similar style to the original Chrono Trigger. If you're not familiar with that, you're bound to be familiar with Final Fantasy, and the main game mechanics aren't all that different. You walk around a large world map, moving into more detailed villages and towns as and when you find them. Unlike Final Fantasy, there are no random battles here! All the monsters which can attack you are right there on the screen - if you can avoid it, you can avoid a scrap. This is a much better way of going about things (as I've often said before!) and I've no idea why this system hasn't been implemented in the Final Fantasy series yet. Run into a bad guy and it's straight into turn-based combat, much the same as any other RPG. The combat is very well done, however. Each character has a certain amount of stamina and as long as there is stamina remaining you can continue to attack. Once the stamina is out, he has to step back and rest for a while before he can attack again. Physical attacks are the standard order of the day, but powerful magic attacks are also possible (and, indeed, necessary for some of the larger bosses). Each character also has an alignment to a particular c olour, which allows them to use magical attacks of that colour more successfully. On the flip-side, magical attacks of the opposite colour will hurt them more.... The first thing that strikes you about Chrono Cross are the graphics and FMV. They are quite possibly the best graphics I have ever seen on a Playstation. The rendering is absolutely superb, the FMV is flawless and worth watching every time, and the character design and animation is second to none. The music and sound effects are also excellent and not likely to have you reaching for the volume control in a hurry. The storyline is also very well written and executed, if a little confusing at times. This will be especially apparent to people who haven't played the original Chrono Trigger - there are some parts of the story which will make little sense if you don't know what has happened before. If you have played the original, though, you'll greatly appreciate the references back to the original. Progress through the game is steady and never dull. Rarely will you find yourself stuck for something to do next, and the plot isn't as linear as most RPGs, allowing you to tackle some events when you feel like them as opposed to when you are allowed to. There are a few side-quests which you don't need to complete to finish the game (but should), and there is a HUGE selection of characters to add to your team - not sure of the exact number, but I think it's around 40. If anything that's a few TOO many! :-) As you progress through the story you'll find out how Serge's life/death has affected the two worlds in different ways, and how everyone's fate is intertwined with the actions of the heroes from the first game. It's enthralling stuff, and with about 40 hours of gameplay spread over two CDs it's well worth the asking price. Chrono Cross for me is almost perfect. It's an A1 RPG in its own right, it looks great, pla ys great, doesn't have random battles, engages you with its storytelling and has main characters who you care about. It also has about ten different endings (much like the original Chrono Trigger), so is well worth playing through at least a couple of times - something which you can't often say about an RPG. There are a few minor niggles, of course. As I've said above, the storyline can be quite difficult to follow at times (concentration is required!) and you might miss out on some things if you haven't played the first game. Secondly, the game feels a little short - 40 hours is a long time, but the end suddenly springs up on you from nowhere! I was quite happily playing along and suddenly it was over... After the earlier sections being quite slow-paced I was surprised at how quickly the story was tied up. Thirdly, I was a tad disappointed that I didn't get to go time-hopping again and that there was only one other parallel universe. A minor storyline point, I know, but I did feel it could have been a little more spread-out. And fourthly... no, I tell a lie - there is no fourth point. I love it too much. If you're any kind of serious RPG fan then Chrono Cross is NOT one to miss out on. It's every shade of wonderful and deserves all of the respect and glowing praise that it received. It's an absolute travesty that this game was denied to European players - how come we're always short-changed when it comes to RPGs and given yet more boring driving games instead? Save up your cash, get your Playstation chipped and grab a US import copy of this. I guarantee you won't regret it for one minute

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Oh, what a disaster! Not the game, you understand, but the fact that Square Europe have deemed that this wonderful slice of RPG entertainment should not have an official release in Europe. It truly is a great shame for all the people who will miss out on one of the Square's finest. As mentioned in some of the other reviews here, Chrono Cross is the sequel to Chrono Trigger, possibly the best RPG ever to appear on Super Nintendo. The original was a hugely entertaining romp though time, with our heroes utilising time portals and machines to save the future from the past... if you see what I mean! The sequel carries on the story, but not as you would expect... You control Serge, a young boy growing up in a small, friendly village. However, things aren't going to remain normal for long - upon visiting the beach with his (wanna-be) girlfriend he accidentally finds himself falling through a portal into a parallel universe. He finds himself trapped in a world which is almost identical to his own, but where certain events have had different outcomes - the main one being that in this universe he's dead! Serge's original quest to get back home quickly grows when he discovers that evil elements are at work. If their plans are allowed to come to fruition it could spell the end for both worlds.... So, a fairly standard RPG storyline (save the world), but oh... how wonderfully executed! The game plays in very similar style to the original Chrono Trigger. If you're not familiar with that, you're bound to be familiar with Final Fantasy, and the main game mechanics aren't all that different. You walk around a large world map, moving into more detailed villages and towns as and when you find them. Unlike Final Fantasy, there are no random battles here! All the monsters which can attack you are right there on the screen - if you can avoid it, you can avoid a scrap. This is a much better way of going about things (as I've often said before!) and I've no idea why this system hasn't been implemented in the Final Fantasy series yet. Run into a bad guy and it's straight into turn-based combat, much the same as any other RPG. The combat is very well done, however. Each character has a certain amount of stamina and as long as there is stamina remaining you can continue to attack. Once the stamina is out, he has to step back and rest for a while before he can attack again. Physical attacks are the standard order of the day, but powerful magic attacks are also possible (and, indeed, necessary for some of the larger bosses). Each character also has an alignment to a particular colour, which allows them to use magical attacks of that colour more successfully. On the flip-side, magical attacks of the opposite colour will hurt them more.... The first thing that strikes you about Chrono Cross are the graphics and FMV. They are quite possibly the best graphics I have ever seen on a Playstation. The rendering is absolutely superb, the FMV is flawless and worth watching every time, and the character design and animation is second to none. The music and sound effects are also excellent and not likely to have you reaching for the volume control in a hurry. The storyline is also very well written and executed, if a little confusing at times. This will be especially apparent to people who haven't played the original Chrono Trigger - there are some parts of the story which will make little sense if you don't know what has happened before. If you have played the original, though, you'll greatly appreciate the references back to the original. Progress through the game is steady and never dull. Rarely will you find yourself stuck for something to do next, and the plot isn't as linear as most RPGs, allowing you to tackle some events when you feel like them as opposed to when you are allowed to. There are a few side-quests which you don't need to complete to finish the game (but should), and there is a HUGE selection of characters to add to your team - not sure of the exact number, but I think it's around 40. If anything that's a few TOO many! :-) As you progress through the story you'll find out how Serge's life/death has affected the two worlds in different ways, and how everyone's fate is intertwined with the actions of the heroes from the first game. It's enthralling stuff, and with about 40 hours of gameplay spread over two CDs it's well worth the asking price. Chrono Cross for me is almost perfect. It's an A1 RPG in its own right, it looks great, plays great, doesn't have random battles, engages you with its storytelling and has main characters who you care about. It also has about ten different endings (much like the original Chrono Trigger), so is well worth playing through at least a couple of times - something which you can't often say about an RPG. There are a few minor niggles, of course. As I've said above, the storyline can be quite difficult to follow at times (concentration is required!) and you might miss out on some things if you haven't played the first game. Secondly, the game feels a little short - 40 hours is a long time, but the end suddenly springs up on you from nowhere! I was quite happily playing along and suddenly it was over... After the earlier sections being quite slow-paced I was surprised at how quickly the story was tied up. Thirdly, I was a tad disappointed that I didn't get to go time-hopping again and that there was only one other parallel universe. A minor storyline point, I know, but I did feel it could have been a little more spread-out. And fourthly... no, I tell a lie - there is no fourth point. I love it too much. If you're any kind of serious RPG fan then Chrono Cross is NOT one to miss out on. It's every shade of wonderful and deserves all of the resp ect and glowing praise that it received. It's an absolute travesty that this game was denied to European players - how come we're always short-changed when it comes to RPGs and given yet more boring driving games instead? Save up your cash, get your Playstation chipped and grab a US import copy of this. I guarantee you won't regret it for one minute.

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When WWF Attitude came out it was the best wrestling game unchallenged. Even now its Create-a-Wrestler mode is far superior to that of any other wrestling game. The wrestling game that followed Attitude, WWF Smackdown, lacked two important features that Attitude has. Firstly, a good Creat-a-Wrestler mode. On Smackdown there is hardly any selection available, and you can only select head, top and bottom instead of being able to select hair, facial features, hats, T-Shirts, vests, belts, trousers, shorts, boots, shoes, etc etc. And also Smackdown lacks commentary. One of Attitude's strongest points is that is has commentating.

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Well after roughly 37 hours of gameplay spread over the last few weeks I've finally completed Chrono Cross and what a fantastic RPG it has been. The second title to be released in the US as part of Square's 'Summer of Adventure' it's a shame that we are unlikely to see the title released over here. Visually it will appeal to anyone who's enjoyed Sqare recent Final Fantasy titles, but in my opinion it shows a greater depth of gameplay then either FF7 or FF8. There's more freedom to the game, things are definately a lot less linear and the plot is entertainingly complex (yes, far more so than either of the recent FF games). Immeadiately the game starts you're thrown into the action, finding yourself in charge of Serge a yougn boy leading a group of 2 others through a tower apparently racing to encounter Sir Lynx. Just going with the events surrounding you, you explore the tower, fight a few creatures and activate a transporter pad. This takes you to a large door which you open and suddenly experience a series of bizarre visions. The next moment you wake up in the small village of Arni. Speaking to your mother you learn that you are late to meet your girlfriend, Leena. Rushing to meet her, she demands you fetch her some Komono scales to make a necklace. Dutifully you head off to fight the lizards and get the scaes, before meeting Leena on the nearby beach. It's at the beach that things really start to pick up, Serge hears a strange calling and suddenly finds himself falling only to wake up later on the beach. Returning to Arni he soon discovers this isn't the same world he was in a while ago, everything seems identical except that he died when he was younger in this world. This is where the adventure really picks up, as Serge sets out to find just what has happened to him. It isn't long before he encounters Kid a young girl seeking revenge on Sir Lynx for killing a friend and one of Serge's accomplaces d uring the raid on the tower that started the game. The plot thickes as we learn of frozen flames, six mythical dragons and the existence of these two worlds in which Serge apparently plays a key role. It isn't so far into the game before Serge can return to his own world, but by then he is so embroiled in far bigger events that he doesn't have a chance to settle back into ordinary life. Instead Serge must save the world from the apparent threat that Sir Lynx represents. However things will get a lot more complex before he gets chance to do this and not very much turns out to be as it seems. If anything where Chrono Cross really wins is in plot, it's complex and deep, perhaps suffering a little from the Japanese RPG's habit of preaching on how mankind abuses the Earth, but none the less entertaining. It does get very complex, especially once the two worlds are involved, often with certain events only being performed on one or the other. The worlds are identical in terms of locations though the locations themselves may vary and this adds a lot of interest to a game. Half the puzzle can be determining which world you should be exploring a location in. Any plot filled with time travel and dimension crossing is likely to be convoluted and this is certainly the case for Chrono Cross. By the end of the game it turns out that an awful lot of events all tie in to events of Serge's life. Fortunately much of these revelations are only hinted at until the last few hours when you're so busy rushing to save the two worlds that you don't worry about being confused. It really isn't a barrier to enjoying these games. Graphically Chrono Cross is excellent, generally resembling FF8, but with slightly better visuals I feel. As some one used to the Dreamcast's higher resolution I coudn't help thinking how much the title would benefit from being on the DC or PS2, it would look superb in a higher resolution. However locations are varied and colourful, clearly a lot of time and attention have been spent on the design (as you'd expect from Square). The world map is detailed, but easy to use, though in general you won't be spending that much time on it. The games music matches it's visuals with a number of excellent tracks, the opening theme being one of my favourites. Sound effects are distinctly Square with a nuber of them being familiar from the last two FF games. All in all the presentation is superb, for a game without the hype of Final Fantasy (in the West) this more than matches in quality. Gameplay manages to outclass the presnetation. Controls will be familiar to anyone who's played FF7 or 8 and the game can be picked up in a matter of minutes. Combat isn't time based, but rather stamina based and uses a system of elements for magic, perhaps comparable with FF8 junctionign system. The elements and stamina add a degree of complexity to combat that rewards intelligent and thought out battle strategies. Get your strategy right and combatting bosses becomes a lot easier, relying on the player to keeps their wits and carefully choose their attacks. The use of magic and summoning spells results in typically impressive graphics. All in all it ensures that combat never gets tiresome, which is a problem that some RPGs need to deal with. To make matters easier there are no random encounters, so if you don't want to fight a creature just avoid it. Characters only level up through fighting with bosses so you really could get by without many fights, but the spoils from fighting are needed fro upgrading your equipment. Puzzles tend to be of the usual RPG fare, find a person or object, bring it to a certain location or perfrom some other similar task. The existence of two worlds as mentioned adds some interest as you may need to perfrom the task in one world or the other. There's a large number of other characters who can join your party, some of them i ntroducing potential subquests. For example a blacksmith tells you of a rainbow material that makes very good weaponry. When you find some you learn that you'll need to bring the blacksmith from the other world and find a good enough hammer to make this weaponry. It's quite entertaining to bring the same people from the two worlds together, but in this instance I didn't find the hammer before completing the game. These side quests along with several periods where the game is very nonlinear makes for a much more interesting RPG than I've experienced of late. Mush of the time I wasn't railroaded down a particular course or another, but free to wander and discover things at my own pace. Upon completion of the game you can make a Game+ save which enables you to play again, but with all the party members you'd found and with your much higher levels right from the start. If you want to find everyone who can join your team and explore every little nuance of the game you'll need to do this. I haven't started down this path yet, but I suspect I'll give it a go soon as Chrono Cross has been so enjoyable. Chrono Cross is based 20 years after the events of the SNES game Chrono Trigger. I've never played Chrono Trigger, but I knew it was a fan favourite and this was what prompted me to buy Chrono Cross. Having enjoyed the game so much I've now downloaded a SNES emulator and a copy of the Chrono Trigger ROM so I'll get to find out even more about the events in this world. It's a definite sign of quality when a game can create such a desire to replay it and to explore its world further, if only more RPGs were this involving. If you hadn't guessed by now, I really loved Chrono Cross and whole heartedly recommend it to any Playstation owning RPG fan. I haven't enjoyed an RPG this much since I import Lunar from the US, but it's a shame I have to import these games to enjoy them, if only more were releas ed in the UK. If you enjoyed either of the Final Fantasy outings on the Playstation then I think you might find this an even more rewarding game and anyway it'll help tide you over until FF9 makes an appearance. Highly recommended for anyone who likes RPGs and likes them with some depth.

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I somehow doubt many people reading this will have played Chrono Trigger. I know I didn't play it until relatively recently, and consider the descision not to release the game in europe as stupid as Square not releasing Chrono Trigger 99 in the States. Anyhow, Chrono Cross is the sequel to Chrono Trigger, and unlike other Square games this is actually set in the same world as the original game, but by being set on a diferent continent it means that the scope for revisiting locations from the older title is minimal. As for the story, you play Serge, a young boy from a small fishing village called Arni. Serge's girlfriend, Leena, want a necklace made out of the scales of the local lizard life, so Serge sets out to collect some. Upon completing this task, Serge meets up with Leena on the nearby beach, where he disapears, awakening in an alternate universe in which he died ten years ago. He soon meets up with Kid, a young girl on a quest to get revenge on the token bad-guy Lynx and obtaining the amazing treasure The Frozen Flame. Joining forces, they begin their parallel tripping adventure to save time and space! Typical RPG story you may think, with you playing a character placed out of water. However, the dimension jumping is played out well, with you being able to jump freely between the two dimensions later on in the game. You can also build a party consisting of up to 44 different characters, who can entertainingly meet up with themselves in the alternate worlds. The combat in this game is very, very strong. After the damp squid gameplay in the recent Final Fantasy games, Square have come up with something which proves not to be tedious or leans too far toward magic or summons spell. Combat is maybe a little too complex to describe here, but it soon becomes second nature. Doubled with the fact that like Grandia or Chrono Trigger combat can be avoided (no FF style random encounters), this proves to be one of the g ames strongest suits. Visually, this game is one of the finest on the PS. A generational leap over, Final Fantasy 8, it has nothing which stands out as much as the summons spells or the spectactular FMV, but the modelling proves to be more detailed and character have more movement (such as flowing skirts or hair) than in FF8. The music is great too. My problems with the game is that the story really feels like it becomes convoluted towards the end. Much of the game passes without a Chrono Trigger reference, but the last act of the game leans very heavily on the prequel. Not so much that you'll be completely lost, mind you, but it could cause a little confusion. My other problem is that the pacing proves to be pretty bad. The story sequences prove perhaps a little to far apart, with there being long, occasionally dull quests seperating many of them. What is there is excellent, and there are a few player-triggered events to find, but it can be a chore at one particular part of the game, where a great event is followed by a really tedious sub-quest. Towards the end you may feel that certain things are just lumped on you without any real explaination as well. Much to it's advantage, though, completing the game gives you the 'NewGame+' feature. This allows you to keep all your experience, your equiptment, and later on all the characters you have previously collected, whilst starting a new game. Only by using this can you collect all the characters, whilst it also opens up a number of additional ending by ending the game at certain parts of the story (I've heard of at least 9). This gives the game a large degree of replayability. The basic game weighs in at about 30 hours, which I'm increasingly finding about right for these titles. From some of the things I've said you'd be forgiven if you think that I thought this title any less that superb, but you'd be wrong. It kept me hooked to the PS for it's whole duration, and is something I enjoyed an awful lot. Certainly, I'd go as far to say it is one of the top 5 genre games on the PS. Sadly, a UK release is not on the cards. Should you have the means to play import games, I urge you to pick up a copy. If you've played Chrono Trigger, this is a must-play game, and even if you haven't I heartily recommend it.

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This game is a great RPG that any RPG fan should not be without. It is made by the developer Squaresoft, widely renowed as the best RPG maker in the world for it's work on the Final Fantasy series. Chrono Chross is the sequel to the Super Nintendo, Chrono Trigger, which is also a very well known and loved Square RPG. In the game, you play a Serge, a youth in a small fishing village to whom fate has dealt a strange hand. You find yourself traveling between worlds, encountering many strange and imaginative enemies and lots of wonderful and unique playable characters, including cursed voodoo dolls and aliens (no, really, this is not a joke)! With beautiful and colorful graphics, detailed animation, painted backdrops, it is a sight to behold. Throw in an interesting battle and magic systems, branching plot, and a unique leveling up system, and you got an instant classic. Personally, I love this game, it's already one of my favorite games of all time. There is plenty of comedy, and action, and great cut-scenes to boot!If your looking for a game, this is it! Rated 5 out of 5 discs in Official Playstation Magazine Rated 9.5 out of 10 in Game Informer Memory Card: One block